Bronz's love affair with American food goes back about 10 years, when she founded and ran Miss Ruby's Cafe in New York City. American regional dishes were the bill of fare, and the menu changed every few weeks.
Miss Ruby's Cornucopia is an extension of the restaurant's theme. The foods that serve as the centerpiece for the book are cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra and Southern greens, chilies and tomatillos, jicama, Jerusalem artichokes and sugar snap peas.
To Bronz, even a tomato sandwich is something special. It is most beautiful, she says, in its purest form. She calls it Basic and Beautiful: Two tablespoons of mayonnaise divided between two slices of white or whole-wheat bread, thick slices of peeled, summer tomato seasoned with salt and pepper, and your favorite lettuce.
Bronz takes classic cooking techniques and pairs them with American ingredients, such as flavoring a hollandaise sauce with a cranberry puree - a simple innovation. She thinks it odd that many Americans seemed surprised that there could be life after corn on the cob.
Her recipes include such dishes as Grilled Tuna With Corn Relish; Sweet Potato Salad, and Blueberry Biscuit Cobbler. The book is categorized by ingredients and each chapter has introductory information.
Bronz has a teacher's manner with recipes, which makes them easy to follow. She was born and raised in Houston, giving many of her dishes a Southern or Tex-Mex flavor. Here are some recipes from the book:
GRILLED TUNA WITH CORN RELISH
2 cups fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup fine-diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup fine-diced green bell pepper
1 small red onion, diced fine
1/4 cup fine-diced celery
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon fine-chopped coriander
2 dashes of hot red pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest
4 tuna steaks
1 cup virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 bunches arugula, washed and dried
